Posted by KaraS on September 3, 2005, at 18:30:52
In reply to My rant, posted by TexasChic on September 2, 2005, at 17:58:45
> The government knew it was coming, but they just left it up to the individuals to get themselves out! Why didn't the gov. help them?! So many people had no means to get out! They didn't even try to get the ill, elderly, and children out. Then, knowing the terrible conditions these people were stuck in, they still left them for days in unsafe, unsanitary conditions with no food or water. I just feel like the gov. really dropped the ball on this one. They should have been better prepared to handle this after the 9/11 experience. Its no wonder its chaos and violence, that's the way people get when desperate and scared. And these people are terrified. They think they are forgotten and ignored. They think that because the majority is black that they are not getting the immediate attention they would have otherwise. This whole thing just makes me sick to my stomach. I just needed to vent, I hope I didn't inadvertantly insult anyone. Please regard it as a miscomunication if I did.
>
> -T
Exactly! Why weren't there better plans for how to deal with this? This was a storm that we knew was coming! And once it hit, why were people left at the Superdome for days without food and water? Didn't anyone think that once they got there they'd need to eat? I've been watching the news and reading whatever I can to try to figure out what went wrong here. Aside from not having a good organized plan to deal with a disaster like this, there was also a problem with the federal government not recognizing the depth of the problem until it was too late.Early reports of Bush on the scene in Biloxi had him saying that they needed to get some generators & diesel fuel down there so that they could restore air-conditioning. Clearly he had no idea how dire the situation was in New Orleans. Ted Koppel was grilling the head of FEMA on the ohter night on "Nightline". The FEMA head said that they didn't know how bad it was for a couple of days. Koppel replied that the media has been reporting it for quite a while and doesn't he or anyone in his department ever watch the news on tv or pick up a newspaper?
A friend sent me an e-mail trying to answer my questions. He said that according to the Stafford act, 68 USC, the procedure in a major disaster is that "the Governor of a State must ask the President to designate an event as a major disaster. The Governor of Louisiana did that on August 28.
http://www.gov.state.la.us/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pdf
"At that point, all that is required is a Presidential designation, and it then becomes a co-ordinated disaster effort by Federal, State and local governments, with, and this is the important part, the Federal Government assuming the lead role. As soon as the President declares a federal emergency, he is in charge."
http://www.fema.gov/library/stafact.shtm
I'm trying now to find out exactly when the federal government designated the area as a major disaster. There was too long of a lapse but I just don't know exactly how long that was. Obviously, the federal government dropped the ball. My guess is that the head of FEMA will be the scapegoat and lose his job - though without the President declaring the area a disaster, he couldn't do anything.
Here's a good article about how some strategic planners were trying to get FEMA to take this kind of a scenario seriously in July, 2004 and the FEMA engineers just literally laughed at them.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9178501/
Here are a couple of other good articles on what went wrong.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/02/bush.katrina.ap/index.html
and
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1092744&page=1
poster:KaraS
thread:548814
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20050903/msgs/550431.html